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2019 Power Rankings-Week 4
Introduction - Grudge Week In the history of the LOC, there have only been ten 3-0 teams. Six of the previous nine have made the playoffs. RIPDab was the 1st 3-0 team back in 2011, the 4th in 2013, and now the 10th here in 2019. None of the previous nine teams have won the Glory Bowl. In the history of the LOC, no reigning champion has ever started a season 0-3. In total, 12 teams have started 0-3 and only three have made the playoffs. Sweet Dee is off to the worst start in her franchise history. Will she be able to turn it around this week? Or is the Glory Bowl hangover too much to overcome? This week three matchups are rematches of playoff games from 2019. Last year's semifinals matchup between Sweet Dee and GBM produced one of the biggest upsets in Festival history. Jared has a chance to avenge their Million Dollar Game loss against Bell of Da Ball. Finally, it's one of the most historic rivalries in all of sports: Duck vs. Papa. The Packers vs. Bears of this league. Series Recaps * RIPDab ties up the epic franchise series with Paddock 9 (6-6). Next Matchup: Week 12 * Duck Punchers gets even with Sweet Dee with a commanding victory (5-5). Next Matchup: Week 12 * ma ma momma said ties the regular season series with Pain Train, 6-6, and pulls to within one on the overall franchise series (6-7). Next Matchup: Week 7 * Garoppoblow Me gets their first win of 2019, and in doing so remains undefeated against Bell of Da Ball (3-0). Next Matchup: Week 12 * Papa is now on a two-game win streak against Shotti, but still trails mightily in the series (3-8). Next Matchup: Week 9 Matchup Recap We might have had our first classic of 2019 this week when the two top teams in the LOC squared off in a shootout of epic proportions. McCaffrey led all scoring with 53.13 but Mahomes punched right back with 51.69. Nate's Cooks scored 27.95 and was countered by Pat's Hardman with 29.33. Diggs bombed with 4.70, Jacobs bombed with 6.30. Fitz 15.20, meet Robinson with 14.70. Paddock took a 25 point lead into SNF, where Dab's final player scored 27 and gave them the 226.71-224.52 win. I do want to highlight one thing, and that's the repeated error of Pat's ways when it comes to kickers. He has seven transactions this season that involve add/drops of kickers. Matt Gay, the kicker he started the season with, outscored the kicker he played this week 16.50-7.00. There is a deeper rooted issue here of the volatility of kickers, but really this is about Pat having a good team and overthinking himself to his first loss of the season. Monthly Meetings - The Duck Punchers Here is this weeks chart showing which months Duck has played each team (minimum 3 seasons) in the LOC through the 2019 regular season: Among firsts this year are RIPDab/Duck meeting in December and Shotti/Duck meeting in October. Stat Chat This week we continue our retrospective on the 2010's in the LOC. Below is the regular season points leaderboard. The chart is updated through the 2018 season. I do not think the average points per game is accurate, there might have been an importing error because I use Excel to automatically update this every week, so disregard that third column. Other stats of note: *Bell has now gone 23 consecutive regular season weeks without back-to-back wins. *GBM moves into 4th all-time with their 10th consecutive regular season game scoring over 200, passing their previous record of 9. *Bell logs the 10th highest regular season score by a losing team in LOC history. They also own the record for the 1st highest and the 8th highest scores by a losing team. *Sweet Dee sets a franchise record with longest losing streak to start a season. *GBM has started their franchise series against Bell 3-0. This is the fourth team that they have started 3-0 against (RIP, Papa, Paddock). They didn't make it to 4-0 against any of the previous three. Fastest to 20 Regular Season Losses This week Bell took their 20th regular season L. Here is a chart showing the number of games it took for each team to reach regular season loss #20. Bust Watch Oh my God, Bro Mixon... Survivor Update While most of the sane world chose the Cowboys over the Dolphins, those that tampered with the balance of the Universe chose poorly. Jared got strike 1 picking Tampa Bay, while Pat tried to get cute and took Seattle. Everyone is still alive so get those picks in (looking at you Momma and Shotti). Trade Talk At this time last season we had a blockbuster trade that likely sparked the playoff run for GB8 champion Sweet Dee. Pain Train traded DeAndre Hopkins and Royce Freeman (lol) for -- get ready to lol even more--BRO MIXON (and Will Fuller). Pain Train ended up having a great season, but in the Glory Bowl it was Hopkins with 26 points and Mixon with 17. This season, so far, there have been zero point zero trades. It's been a real wait-and-see type of start but believe it or not we are already at the quarter-point of the regular season. The Mirror League Returns This week the Mirror League slid into Nate's DMs and challenged us formally to a duel. For those who do not remember, there is an LOC mirror league out there in the world. They found us when I started my Official LOC twitter account in 2017 and started chirping us that THEY were actually the real LOC. Well time has passed and they still believe they are the true LOC, but we know better. There is only one way to settle this, and that's to challenge them to fantasy. This season, we will pit our three best managers against their three best in the 2019 Playoff Challenge. More details to come but I am expecting nothing short of domination for whoever we decide to send into the arena. Power Rankings Every year, unless you're Pat, you probably feel great about your draft. You picked guys you think are going to ball out, otherwise why would you pick them? For that magical week between the draft and the season, you can fantasize about somehow having the perfect roster. No adds or drops necessary. Championship parade is on! Then reality sets in. You mean to tell me that the tight end who has been around since 2013 but only has 138 receptions isn't a top-10 fantasy option? And now his arm is in a sling? What a salesman this Bob Vance McDonald is, huh? But then there are the pleasant surprises. The Michael Thomas in the 16th round surprises. Not so humble brag. So for this week I highlighted one player who has been a nice surprise and another who has been a major disappointment for each team. Let's get into this week's rankings like Antonio Brown got into Central Michigan! 1(1). Paddock 9 (2-1) *Pleasant Surprise: Dalvin Cook - Drafted 7th, Ranked 5th *Major Disappointment: Dede Westbrook - Drafted 67th, Ranked 196th Does it hurt knowing I'd be 2-1 if I hadn't told Pat I was planning to take Dalvin Cook, giving him the bright idea that he should draft Dalvin Cook? Yes. But I'm happy for Pat, because it was probably the only good non-keeper pick he made in the entire draft. Dede Westbrook became a HUGE disappointment the second Nick Foles went down, ruined that fabled preseason connection we all were hearing about. 2(4). Duck Punchers (2-1) *Pleasant Surprise: Darren Waller - Undrafted, Ranked 68th *Major Disappointment: Puke Johnson - Drafted 55th, Ranked 218th Duck's latest project, Dukie, the heir apparent to the Woodhead throne, has been underwhelming at best and not worth rostering at worst. But he got some duck luck with Darren, an abslute stud playing for a QB who loves to throw to the tight ends. It's been a weird start to the year for this Duck team that can't figure out if it wants to be good or bad. 3(5). RIPDab (3-0) * Pleasant Surprise: Larry Fitzgerald - Drafted 60th, Ranked 36th * Major Disappointment: Stefon Diggs - Drafted 20th, Ranked 197th I don't think anyone would have taken you seriously if you said that a better second round pick this year would be Larry Legend and not Stefon "Matty" Diggs. But that's where we're at. Diggs is a risky start even as a WR3 option these days, with Kirky's offense seldom passing the ball. But Larry is out there playing like he's 30 again! The dude is closer to Tom Brady's age than he is to mine! Njoku has also been a huge disappointment for Dab, who ties their total regular season wins from last season (3-10). 4(2). The Shotti Bunch (2-1) * Pleasant Surprise: Emmanuel Sanders - Drafted 83rd, Ranked 78th * Major Disappointment: Antonio Brown - Drafted 18th, Ranked 258th The last time Shotti faced Papa, they scored 135.93. This week, they scored 135.79. They could have used a guy like Antonio Brown, or Golden Tate, or Melvin Gordon. But Brown seems done and their risky 2nd round pick is a certified bust. Lucky for them, their most prized possession has ended his holdout and looks to return next week. At the worst, the four-time champ will be heading into week 5 at 2-2 with their star RB back in the lineup. 5(3). Sweet Dee (0-3) * Pleasant Surprise: Austin Ekeler - Drafted 71st, Ranked 16th * Major Disappointment: Robert Woods - Drafted 30th, Ranked 161st Sweet Dee ties their longest losing streak from last season with an excruciating loss for a team ranked 2nd in the league in scoring. For comparison, this week last season Momma was in last place with 589.24 points. This season Sweet Dee is in last place with 689.22 points. And it is brutal at the RB position. Williams is hurt and Ekeler has MAYBE two more weeks of RB1 starter value, barring an injury to Melvin. The good news is the Rams offense hasn't hit their peak yet, so things could be looking up for Woods. But things will be getting bleak for Dee if they can't win an easy matchup against the bumbling idiot GBM's this Sunday. 6(8). Garoppoblow Me (1-2) * Pleasant Surprise: Marquise Brown - Undrafted, Ranked 34th * Major Disappointment: Donte Moncrief - Drafted 93rd, Ranked 403rd This has to be one of the worst drafts that GBM has ever had. Not only did they miss on Moncrief, who is a BUM in short order, but they also had high hopes for Corey Davis and took Baker Mayfield early expecting huge 2nd year numbers. The roster is living large off the Ingram/Engram tandem, arguably the only two decent values out of all the non-keeper picks they've made. Luckily, they nabbed Marquise Brown off free agency. This week they're already in a hole after fucking Nelson Agholar put up another goose egg, the 2nd of the year among GBM starters. 7(7). Papa's Posse (2-1) *Pleasant Surprise: LeSean McCoy - Drafted 96th, Ranked 110th *Major Disappointment: Adam Thielen - Keeper Pick at 56th, Ranked 108th Papa is 2-1 and in third place for the second straight year. They had just over 640 points at this point last season and are just over 680 this season. While McCoy hasn't exactly lit it up, it is still a huge boost for him to have been traded to the KC offense. With Chris Godwin as an option, Papa has to be bummed that they instead went with slow-starter Adam Thielen. The team is thin at the flex spot and is in big trouble this week with TY Hilton doubtful for Sunday. 8(6). Pain Train (1-2) *Pleasant Surprise: Lamar Jackson - Undrafted, Ranked 2nd *Major Disappointment: Joe Mixon - Drafted 9th, Ranked 166th Picked up before the season in exchange for DeMaryius Thomas, Lamar Jackson has been second only to Patrick Mahomes in scoring this season. It's a good thing, too, becuase Pain Train is hurting with Bro Mixon this year. In fact, rolling with multiple Bengals seems ill advised. They already got 41 out of Davante Adams on TNF, but his turf toe is a bummer and could be an issue moving forward. By the way, Sony looks like an absolute fantasy dud. 9(9). Bell of Da Ball (1-2) *Pleasant Surprise: Terry McLaurin - Undrafted, Ranked 44th *Major Disappointment: James Conner - Keeper Pick at 59th, Ranked 153rd Bell is 1-2 and in 6th place for the second straight season and is crazy close in their points scored (666.02 last season, 678.71 this season). McLaurin is hurt, which sucks, but he has been one of the best surprises in all of fantasy so far in 2019. That's where the good stuff ends for Bell, and with the injury that pretty much eliminates even the good stuff. The Steelers STINK. The Browns STINK. The Giants STINK. So good thing he has starting RBs for all those teams. The Barkley injury is just bad for football in general and really bums me out (even though it's literally the only reason I won). For Bell, at 1-2, it is a killer. 10. ma ma momma said (1-2) *Pleasant Surprise: Sammy Watkins - Drafted 77th, Ranked 21st *Major Disappointment: Mike Williams - Drafted 34th, Ranked 184th Out of nowhere, momma actually looked like a competant fantasy team this week. Considering the bottom four teams are going toe-to-toe, don't be surprised if momma McGyver's their way into the 6th seed by the end of this weekend. It's an absolutely terrifying prospect, but with four teams at 1-2 and Dee favored over GBM at 0-3, it's a strong possibility. It will be a sad day for us all, even Jared probably because he knows he doesn't deserve it. Also, listen to the podcast Jared. What gives, man? Matchup of the Week - Return of the Quack On paper, there simply might not be a better rivalry in the LOC than this one. Two former Glory Bowl champions with a total of SIXTEEN matchups between them. Tied 1-1 in postseason play and tied 7-7 in regular season play. In total, Duck is ahead in scoring 3,384.03-3,260.03. That averages out to 211.50-203.77 per game. They have played three times in 2011 and 2018 and played twice every season except 2013-2014. This year, they are only scheduled once. And that's today. Two 2-1 teams, each with a chance to take a commanding lead over the bottom dwellers heading into week 5. I'm excited to see this one go down, although Papa is in rough shape and I hope he can muster the strength to compete with heavy favorite Duck Punchers. look up fastest to 20 regular season losses.